President Obama’s binder full of tax hikes on women

The most obvious tax attack on women is President Obama’s plans to raise the tax rates at which a majority of small business profits face taxation. Since small businesses pay taxes using the individual rates, raising these rates is a hike in the small business tax rate, too. The Obama plan to raise the top two rates from 33 and 35 percent today to 36 and 39.6 percent (respectively) next year will fall on the majority of small employer profits, according to IRS data. A study by Ernst and Young argues that allowing this small business tax hike to go through would kill over 700,000 jobs.

According to the Census Bureau, 10.2 million women own their own small businesses (or own them with their husbands). They employ 15.7 million Americans and generate a staggering $2.5 trillion in business receipts. President Obama cannot raise tax rates on “the rich” without also raising the small business tax rate paid by these female entrepreneurs.

Finally, the Obama administration’s most infamous tax hike on small-business-owning women is the 10 percent “tanning tax” found in Obamacare. According to industry estimates from the Indoor Tanning Association, 75 percent of professional tanning businesses are owned by women. Seven out of 10 tanning salon customers are women. For any business owner, a 10 percent excise tax is enough of a burden, but this tax has also proven to be a regulatory nightmare. According to a Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report, the Obama IRS didn’t bother to issue compliance guidelines until three quarterly filing deadlines had passed: “By the time [IRS] notices were issued, tanning excise tax returns had been due for three quarters.”

While Obama and Biden are off making jokes about binders, their proposed and enacted tax increases on women across America are no laughing matter.